Satyam Computer's disgraced founder Ramalinga Raju and his brother Rama Raju were on Saturday remanded to judicial custody till January 23 and would be lodged in the Chanchalguda Central Jail. The Raju brothers, who were arrested on Friday night and subjected to several hours of interrogation, were produced before the 6th Chief Metropolitan Magistrate at the judges' quarters at Marredpally in Secunderabad on Saturday evening. Hyderabad police said later they had also arrested the company's chief financial officer, Vadlamani Srinivas, and were questioning him. “The charges against him are criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery of accounts,” said V.S.K. Kaumudi, the city's Inspector General of Police. “We are not planning to arrest anybody else right now,” he added. Ramalinga Raju was arrested overnight after he surrendered to the police and was jailed on remand until Jan. 23 by a judge in Hyderabad, court officials said. Raju's lawyers said they would seek bail for the disgraced software tycoon whose admission to wrongdoing prompted a near collapse of Satyam, which boasts high-profile clients in 65 countries. Raju has been charged with fraud following his admission that his firm's accounts and assets had been falsified over a period of several years, with profits inflated to the tune of more than one billion dollars. Indian market regulator the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is also seeking to question Raju, one of the pioneers of India's outsourcing boom and once the darling of international investment funds. Satyam shares have gone into freefall, closing at 23.85 rupees on Friday compared to a value of around 180 rupees before the scandal erupted. India's government has also stepped in, and on Friday booted out Satyam's directors' board saying it will name representatives to manage the affairs of the company. Before being dismissed, the interim Satyam board had pledged to try and keep the company running and rectify the mistakes. It had also insisted it was unaware of the scam, which has prompted comparisons with the collapse of US energy giant Enron and generated fears over the impact on foreign investment in Indian business and on corporate governance standards. At least two US shareholder lawsuits have been filed against Satyam earlier this week.
